Fluent in Punjabi and conversational in Urdu and Hindi, Adnan has travelled extensively across Pakistan over multiple visits, combining linguistic access with deep engagement across the country's extraordinary diversity. For the BBC documentary Dangerous Borders, he journeyed the entire length of Pakistan from Karachi to Passu near the Chinese border, documenting how Partition's legacy continued to shape lives seventy years later—meeting elderly survivors still carrying trauma from 1947, fishing families whose men had been imprisoned by India with wives waiting years for brief visits across the border, and a young female Pakistan Air Force fighter pilot who spoke frankly about the possibility of combat against India. The journey revealed Pakistan's internal complexities: a pioneering female boxer from an impoverished background defying social expectations, black Pakistanis facing discrimination for their skin colour, Sufis targeted by extremists for their spiritual practices, remote communities in the Thar Desert living without electricity yet maintaining dignified self-sufficiency, and a polo match in the north between Police and Army teams that illuminated civil-military tensions through sport. This ground-level understanding of Pakistan's social fabric, religious diversity, ethnic tensions, and the weight of the India relationship informs his analytical work on the country.

In 2019, he addressed the Houses of Parliament on the Indus Peace Park initiative, arguing for confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan—demonstrating his commitment to moving beyond analysis toward practical engagement with the region's most intractable conflict. He was asked by the Aga Khan Centre in London to meet, along with other prominent Pakistanis, The Prince and Princess of Wales to advise them on Pakistan.

This deep engagement with Pakistan—combining language access and sustained field presence—informs ongoing research on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, India-Pakistan tensions, and the country's internal security dynamics as part of systematic South Asia expertise building.

Selected media

2021, Taking Apart Terror, an award-winning ten part podcast on Islamic terrorism in Pakistan and beyond, Presenter, Worldwide reach

2019, Selected to brief The Prince and Princess of Wales on Pakistan alongside other prominent Pakistanis, Aga Khan Centre, London

2019, Houses of Parliament, Indus Peace Park, a peace initiative between Pakistan and India, Guest Speaker, London 

2017, Dangerous Borders: A Journey across India and Pakistan, Presenter, October Films